Epic Of The Demonic Sage

Instead of saying anything about the second group though, Lucius decided to keep his observations to himself for now and wait for a better time.

At the moment, it was his and Kiana's priority to stay undercover and so he kept himself attentive to how everyone interacted with each other.

"Hello there! Nice to meet you, I believe we haven't met?" Finch decided to interrupt the second group from speaking too much to Lord Asher and Kiana and introduced herself.

"Oh, who might you be?" the second mercenary leader greeted Finch with a long and unsubtle gaze.

"She's Finch and I'm Ariana. We're from Gellor's team, we've been here a few years back." Ariana added and joined the conversation. "Not sure if you've heard of us."

"Ah, yes, Harold did mention all of you. Quite a competent team. It's a surprise that none of you have ever thought of expanding before, until now." The mercenary leader glanced at Lucius and Kiana.

"The reason why we're such a good team is because we all know each other so well." Ariana said. "It takes a little bit more than just having a large number to make a team competent after all. Knowing how each one of us works really helps."

"Although we're not entirely closed off to the idea of having some other mercenaries join us from time to time." Finch added in explanation. "New connections and relationships are always welcome."

"Glad to hear that you're not all too closed off to that." The second leader mercenary nodded. "I'm sure that these two newbies will learn a lot from you."

Kiana tried not to bristle and kept a smile on her face, while Lucius inclined his head and chose not to comment. They were free to believe whatever they wanted as long as it didn't draw them any suspicion.

"On the contrary, they're actually quite good already." Finch said, glancing in Lord Asher's way. She remembered his fighting skills and just couldn't accept the fact that someone would try to say something like this about him.

"Hah, then perhaps we'll get to see how good they are." Another mercenary group member challenged. "What's your gift?"

"Come on now, don't be rude and ask them what gift they have when we just first met them." The second mercenary leader lightly scolded his team member, but glanced towards Lucius in a way that said they actually wanted to hear about it.

"I have a fire gift. I can use it to throw fireballs." Lucius explained.

"Oh, really? That's useful. Fire's always useful."

"Indeed it is."

'How does Lord Asher have a fire gift? Does he have a secret artifact that'll allow him to use fireballs? He's probably lying… but the others can't know it.' Finch silently thought the same thing as Ariana.

"Anyway, it's a surprise that you and Harold know each other. Are the two of you together on the same mission?" Finch said to change the subject.

"Something like that. Isn't that right, Harold?"

"… Oh, yes!" Harold called out.

As Finch and Ariana talked with the second mercenary team, Gellor was the one mostly preoccupied with Harold and the rest of his team while Barty and Albus also did their best to converse with the others.

Each member of Gellor's team tried their best to draw attention to themselves as to keep them away from Lord Asher and Kiana.

"So what really brings you guys along to Aisse territory if Inanis city has been giving you good opportunities?" Harold asked, temporarily pausing from his conversation with Gellor and glanced at the team.

"We have a mission to collect rune crystals around the Aisse territory." Lucius said.

"Really?"

"Yes, here's the official commission slip we've received." Lucius offered it up for everyone to see. "Since we knew that Gellor and his team were familiar with Aisse territory, we thought it was a good opportunity to team up and split the money."

"Wow, that's quite a nice sum. I'm jealous." Harold whistled. "You really weren't lying about opportunities, Gellor."

Documents and other related information for their 'mission' was something that Lucius had Kiana prepare beforehand so that they'd had something to show.

It was quite official that even the second mercenary leader couldn't say anything about it anymore and instead cleared his throat.

"Since we're all headed towards Aisse territory and we've all met now, how about we all travel together?"

"We'll get more time to catch up and share stories, Gellor. What do you say?" Harold asked.

"Well…" Gellor took a deep sigh. If it had been any other time then he would have said yes, but he doubted that Lord Asher would like the fact that others were with them.

It would increase the possibility that they might grow suspicious of Lord Asher and Kiana. Gellor needed to decline.

"That sounds like a good idea, doesn't it, Captain?" Lucius said.

Gellor blinked and glanced at Lord Asher in shock, but then nodded. "It does, we'd like to join the two of you."

"Well that's settled!" Harold laughed. "We've got quite a band here, don't we?"

"We sure do." The second mercenary leader said dryly.

Gellor didn't know what Lord Asher had in mind, but he trusted the man's judgment and so they traveled with Harold's team and the other mercenary group.

Soon enough, they actually enter the Aisse territory as the sun went down.

"Man, dark clouds finally rolling in." Albus whistled.

"We haven't seen rain for days. This might be a really strong one judging by the clouds." Barty said.

"There's a hillside over there. It'd be a perfect place to weather against the storm." Harold called out to them.

Lucius and the mercenary groups settled down at Harold's suggestion and set up a proper camp. When evening finally came, the thunderstorm started and everyone was stuck inside their tents.

"Man, we're going to be here all night." Ariana complained.

"It's a chance to talk, so I don't think it's all that bad, eh, Gellor?" Harold chuckled.

"Yes."

As the groups engaged in conversation, Lucius took it as the perfect opportunity to observe the second mercenary team some more.

'Gellor doesn't know them and there's something that strikes them as suspicious.'

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